FALL RIVER — The Massachusetts Gaming Commission, in its continuing struggle to find a suitable suitor for the southeastern Massachusetts region's commercial casino license, has for now decided to stick to an amended application deadline in September while altering the minimum investment requirement for the region.

“It’s like a pillow fight in a dark room now,” Gaming Commissioner James McHugh said.

“It’s more like a baseball bat fight in a dark room,” responded Stephen Crosby, commission chairman.

According to the Gaming Commission, southeastern Massachusetts — also known as Region C — will be the least profitable of the state’s three regions for a casino owner. Each region has one available gaming license.

Add to that the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe awaiting approval to have land taken into trust by the Bureau of Indian Affairs — which would clear the way for the tribe's proposed casino in Taunton — and the commission said drawing competition to the region has become challenging.

“Time is not the problem. The marketplace is the problem,” Crosby said.

In an effort to attract more competition to Region C, the Gaming Commission decided earlier this month to delay the application deadline, set for July 23, to at least Sept. 23.

The commission indicated that, depending on the interest in a commercial casino license, that date could be extended again.

New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell, seven New Bedford city councilors and KG Urban Enterprises — the gaming company eyeing a waterfront casino in that city — solicited the Gaming Commission to extend the July application deadline.

The Gaming Commission tweaked the $500 million minimum investment requirement for all Region C applicants after Mass Gaming & Entertainment LLC, an affiliate of Chicago-based Rush Street Gaming, requested a variance to waive the requirement.

Originally, the minimum did not allow for the cost of land or infrastructure outside the boundary of casino property. The commission now allows all infrastructure costs to be factored into the minimum.

Fall River Mayor Will Flanagan and Kenneth Fiola Jr., executive vice president of the Fall River Office of Economic Development, lobbied not to have the July 23 deadline moved, arguing Foxwoods Resort Casino and the investment group Crossroads Massachusetts LLC, and the city would have a host-community agreement finalized and a referendum held before the deadline.

Crosby noted that, while the city protested the date change and the possible waiver for Region C, the Gaming Commission had not heard a word from Foxwoods representatives.

“I would not hold them out as a model that this number is doable,” said Crosby of the $500 million minimum. "Their silence has spoken really clearly to me on this one.”

Crosby was also critical of the city and Foxwoods' claim that a host-community agreement would be reached by April 3.

Page 2 of 2 - “Here it is, April 17, and that hasn’t happened,” Crosby said.

David Nunes, spokesman for Foxwoods, said it isn’t the company’s business to tell the Gaming Commission what to do and that the deadline extension gave the city the opportunity for more time to negotiate the host agreement.

Nunes said Foxwoods would be prepared to submit its application in September.

Fiola, who attended the meeting, said he was confused by Crosby’s remarks since, in a letter, he informed the Gaming Commission that due to the change in the deadline, the city’s target date for a special election to approve the agreement would be late June or early July, in time for the Sept. 23 deadline.